College move-in day: a rite of passage at Mount Saint Mary

CITY OF NEWBURGH — Newburgh Free Academy graduate Adrian Willis could have stayed home to begin his new life as a Mount Saint Mary College freshman.

Leonard Sparks

CITY OF NEWBURGH — Newburgh Free Academy graduate Adrian Willis could have stayed home to begin his new life as a Mount Saint Mary College freshman.

But after unloading two carloads of provisions into his room at Guzman Hall — with the help of his mother, sister and a family friend — he explained why he decided to stay on campus rather than at home.

"To get the full experience — like meeting new people, being away from family, just learning how to be independent," said Willis, 18.

That experience began Saturday as Mount Saint Mary welcomed 650 new undergraduate and graduate students to campus for move-in day.

Around Sakac Hall, new students raced to get settled before the start of classes Monday.

"The kitchen sink doesn't seem to be here, but it's pretty close," Terry Consentino said while looking at a carful of stuff being unloaded for her daughter, Angelica.

Bob Mitterando stood in the bed of his pickup truck.

The Mastic Beach salesman and landscaper, wearing a muscle shirt and shorts, moved plastic storage bins toward the liftgate as he waited for his daughter Kacie and wife, Dawn, to return for another load.

One daughter just graduated from Western Connecticut State University; Kacie will major in physical therapy and play lacrosse, he said.

"Their mother and I never had an opportunity to do that," Mitterando said of going to college. "So I make sure that they do."

It was also a day for commuter students to get acclimated.

Marlboro resident Toni Navarro, 17, just graduated from Our Lady of Lourdes High School in Poughkeepsie. Enrolling at Mount fulfills a dream she had since third grade, said Navarro, who will major in mathematics with minors in psychology and Hispanic studies.

"I've been in Catholic schools all my life," she said.

She walked toward Aquinas Hall with her mother, Valerie Navarro, who said she remembered hitting the job market during the recession that struck the country in the early 1980s.

But Toni, who wants to teach high school, said she is not yet worried about her prospects in four years.

"I'm just going with the flow," she said. "We'll see what happens when that time comes."